Data scientists work with large datasets to create hypotheses, draw inferences, and analyse market trends. This data can be either structured or unstructured and is typically collated from multiple sources to provide insights into the efficiency of business operations. Working in this field is monetarily satisfying and intellectually stimulating, while offering the thrill of working with advanced technology.
It is a highly lucrative career in India since there is a scarcity of trained people in this field. So, companies are willing to pay attractive salaries and many long-term perks and incentives. As per AIM Research, there were 1,37,870 jobs in data science in June 2021 in India, representing a 47.1% rise in open jobs versus June 2020. India also made up 9.4% of the total global analytics job openings, up from 7.2% in January 2020.
If you are wondering how to become a data scientist without a formal degree, there are a few ways of doing so. By choosing the right course, you can become job-ready and stay relevant in the industry. Here’s how.
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Get certified
Data science is based on a few core elements, and it’s important to build your expertise in them. These include machine learning, algorithms, regression analysis, programming and statistical models. It is also a good idea to have a clear concept of visualisation, operationalisation, data analysis and engineering. You need to choose a data science course for freshers that has a good track record of enabling people to advance their career. GeekLurn, which is a member of NASSCOM and has partnered with IBM, provides the Data Science Architect Program. The duration of the program is 24 months, and it comes with a 100% placement guarantee. This is how you can become a data scientist after 12th or graduation.
You can become a data scientist with 320+ hours of live interactive sessions with eminent data scientists and 18 months of sponsored project work at authorised research centres funded by IISC, ISB and IIM. You will get 1.5 years of research project experience and a certificate for the same as well as a chance to conduct research work with GeekLurn AI Singapore. What more, you can even get a research project scholarship of ₹2 lakhs. By pursuing this course, you can get certified by top companies like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Accenture. At the end of this data science course for freshers, you will have expertise in Testing, Hadoop Development, Statistical Computing and developing NoSQL and Administration.
Real-time case studies
Exploring cases of how big organisations are using data science can help polish your problem-solving and reasoning skills. Check how Airbnb, Netflix, UPS, HDFC, Spotify and Amazon have been leveraging data science to mitigate losses, boost customer satisfaction, deliver a user-rich experience, tweak pricing strategies, improve recommendations and optimise supply chains. Read about how to be a data scientist in healthcare, ecommerce, meteorology, entertainment and travel industries and study techniques that help them grow their revenues and reputation.
Prepare your portfolio
Create an online presence on websites like Kaggle, LinkedIn and Tableau Public. Build your profile and demonstrate your machine learning, data transformation, cleaning and visualisation skills. Add the previous projects you have worked on and present your soft skills. Showcase your technical skills to draw insights. Make sure you have a ‘storytelling’ way of presenting your profile and work, which can translate a simple business issue into data science language. Consider participating in talks, attending webinars and learning from experts. You can also take up web scraping to publish a new set of data. These are important if you have been wondering how to get into the data science career.
Take up live projects
Find out how data science works in different ways to solve real world problems. These include a project on speech recognition with emotions, developing chatbots, gender and age prediction, drowsiness detection in drivers, determining diabetic retinopathy in patients, identifying credit card frauds, customer segmentation, traffic signal recognition and cancer classification. Start looking out for any projects that you can work on, even if it’s as an intern and does not pay initially. This will give you a good idea of what is required to become a data analyst. This is quite a challenging way to advance your career and requires projects that give you exposure to a wide mix of techniques, procedures, scientific methods and information retrieval systems to detect patterns in organised or unorganised data.
Take part in competitions
This is a good way to apply your newly learnt techniques if you wish to know how to become a data scientist after 12th. Students learn to debate without becoming anxious or aggressive and can gain experience from real-life scenarios. These make your resume even more interesting for potential employers. Keep an eye on upcoming workshops, talks, sessions or debates and don’t hesitate to enrol yourself. Try online quizzes and try to solve the problems on your own. You can also read articles written by top scientists and professionals in this field and consider their tips and tricks to advance your career in data science.
The bottom line:
Not having a degree in hand is not the end of your career. Choose a course that offers you the opportunity to learn from experts and gain experience in live projects. With a little focus and effort, you can build a thriving career with tech giants in India and around the world.
Neel Neeraj
Neel is a Product Manager with an interest in Data Science, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, DevOps, and Blockchain with expertise in Python, R, Java, Power BI and Data analytics.
